ZOO Day

Today we went to the Oakland Zoo for my "niece's" Birthday. Happy 11th EM! J got us in for feeding the giraffes! THANKS J! It was an amazing experience and neat to see the personalities of each one. Here are a few pics! Enjoy!

Update

Hi All. Thought I'd post some pics. I had a nice 6 weeks off! I enjoyed many books, movies, walks on the beach, sunny days gardening, and a week in Colorado. I also took my "Nieces" for a couple of days and we had a blast. I rode my motorcycle a couple of times and we went dirt riding too. The whole vacation was very relaxing. Now it's back to work.
Enjoy the Pics.
Em and Al



Girls Week in Colorado


Sisters


Cozumel

Sunny Day

Hello everyone! Well, this weekend was GREAT! Friday was a lot of fun! Our friends the Starks came over in the early afternoon. The guys took my new bike out for a ride and came back for Happy Hour. I had the kids make Dirt Pie! It was fun and messy. Al made the "dirt" and Em helped me make the "mud". Ian got his hands dirty too stirring in the butter and sugar. We put the dirt pie into flower pots and added some silk flowers and gummy worms to top it all off. Gail and her kids came over too, just in time for happy hour! We all had a really nice time even though the fireworks were in the fog!

Saturday we washed the cars and the bikes. We also took a nice long ride and then stopped for coffee before coming back home around 7pm. My bike is a lot of fun. :)

Yesterday we went for a 4 mile hike in the mountains about 45min from here and then to an early dinner at Alice's at Woodside. We saw some really great views, a couple of lakes, lots of lizards and birds and walked through the interpretive center. It was really warm, about 85-90 degrees, but was really nice when we were in the shade. It's amazing that we live so close to so many great places to hike. It's been a while since we've done a hike like that, so it was really nice.

Well, it's getting late in the morning and I need to get out of my PJs. ;) Until next time!

Happy 4th of July

Okay, so yes, I've been bad at updating this. Well, what can I say? SORRY
I'm here on my Sabbatical...that's 6 weeks off, paid vacation! I'm two weeks in ALREADY! I'm finally comfortable w/ being at home w/ nothing to do but clean, garden and relax! The weather is absolutely beautiful here this week! I can't believe how lucky I am to be home when it's this nice. Hope the fog doesn't come in for the 4th celebrations! I prefer to see fireworks, not fuzzy colored fog. Either way, the day should be nice. We're having our friends (the Starks family and others) over for dinner and smores.

I got a street bike a couple of weeks ago and got my license on Friday last week. I rode yesterday and really enjoyed it! What a fun and exciting toy. I got the Ninja 250R (2008). It's so HOT. See you on the road...just don't run over me, okay?

Hope you like the new widget I embedded! It's just some of my favorite songs of now and all time! Have fun listening to it!

Hope you are all well! TTFN

too long

Hi all, sorry! It's been too long since I last posted. It's been a very busy spring! We've been a couple of busy bees with work, riding, traveling, and working on the yard.

I'll shortly post pictures or two of our trip to COZ and work on the yard. :)

RATZ

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! It's the year of the RAT! I really wouldn't know that except for the fact that my really good friend J is Chinese and her family celebrates it whole heartedly! Rats are very cool creatures! Haven't you seen Ratatouille?

It's been a rather busy year already. I went to CO the 17th-22nd, we saw Supercross at AT&T park on the 26th, went to the "Bendy Chics" (acrobatic troup from China)on the 27th, and spent Super Bowl Sunday at our friends house so the boys could play Mechanics on their dirt bikes. The future looks just as busy with a trip to the snow in March, Dirt Bike weekends galore, a week long trip to San Diego, a work off-site in May on the misty coast of Northern CA, an 8 week class in May-June to learn the biology of cancer and much much more.

I had an excellent time in CO. It was great to be in the white stuff again. The temp was about 16-28 degrees the whole time I was there. CO winter is really not that cold. The air is so dry that the cold stays on top of your coat instead of seeping into your bones like in the coastal damp winter. That is until the wind picks up a bit.

While I was there, I got to see some friends from way back! My little God daughter is SO adorable and the most well behaved little one I've ever met! She does this cute little super hero face! I'm so glad her and her mommy are so happy, FINALLY! I was really sad to leave them!

MY sister and I an amazing time. It was so nice to just do the normal sister stuff...like chopping our hair off, and trying on crazy outfits at the consignment stores, drinking lots of wine and catching up on all those sister conversations. Mom joined us on Saturday and boy did we have fun. It was really good to have the three of us together for a while! We missed dad though! We'll have to take a family vacation again soon so we can all be together. It was really hard to be away from Matt for so long! That's the longest we've been apart in years...and I have to do it again in April when I go to a conference in San Diego.

That's enough for now...need to get something (not sure what) done. ;)